52 Weeks to Personal Genealogy Wedding

Week #35 – Wedding

Week 35: Weddings. Tell us about your wedding. You may also talk about your future wedding, the wedding of a relative or shape this question to fit your own life experience.

Well most of my friends know I am not married, my mom said I was too stubborn to get married, but I just never met someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
I was in a marriage though, March 29, 1958 I was the ring bearer for the wedding of Lane Ruud and Sally Smart. Lane and his parents Clarence & Minnie Ruud had been our neighbor since I was born. He was starting out as a teacher after having been in the Army when they got married in Thurston county. My sister Jacque was the flower girl.
Lane had learned to ski when he was real young, and when he was in the Army he competed for the USA in several skiing competitions in Europe, and so after they were married Lane and Sally traveled all over the globe, and he even did some travelogs. Her parents had a condo in Hawaii and they spent a lot of Christmases in Hawaii.
Sadly Sally got in a car accident and died in 1989 (hard to believe it was that long ago), and a couple of years later Lane remarried. He still does a lot of traveling.

Patty Starkey Retirement Party

Tonight I went to a retirement party at our local PBS station KSPS channel 7 for Patty Starkey. I first met Patty years ago when our local genealogical society, Eastern Washington Genealogical Society was asked for volunteers for the PBS pledge breaks. I had a Friends of 7 T-shirt, so I wore it to the station. When I entered Patty was greeting the volunteers and when she saw my shirt she came over and explained that she had designed this shirt and while it looks good because of the three colors it cost a lot to make so they only made them one year.

Patty has been at KSPS for 35 years, and tonight I also learned she had also been to annual PBS conferences and had befriended people from all over the country. She would pass out white ribbons with the initials OTD on them to all the attendees. Right next to our table was a big poster that said OTD and had been signed by the people at the national PBS convention. We are all going to miss Patty.

OTD= Older Than Dirt

52 Weeks to Personal Genealogy Smells

Week #34 – Smells

Week 34: Smells. Describe any smells that take you back to childhood. These could be from meals, fragrant gardens, musty basements, or something entirely different.

While my grandmother had a lot of flowers, I seldom smelled them, so I will tell about three other smells that I remember from childhood.
The first was the refinery near the railroad tracks north of the city limits where they refined old used oil, and the stink was terrible.
Where we lived in Spokane we had a paved street in front of the house and the street next to our house was dirt and also the alley was dirt (both are paved today). In the summer the city would put down a dust control spray on the dirt streets and we could also get it on the alley if we paid for it. The city used a waste product from the paper mill in the Spokane Valley and it did a wonderful job of keeping down the dust, but it stunk so much the kids all called it bug juice.
That's the end of the bad smells, so now a good one. Once a week my dad would stop at a local bakery and buy bread, hard rolls, and cookies, and if school was out like in the summer we got to go with him to the bakery, and the smell of that bakery brings back a lot of memories. When I was small one of the ladies might give a cookie to my sister and me, and they made great cookies.

52 Weeks to Personal Genealogy Nicknames

Week #33 – Nicknames

Week 33: Nicknames. What was your childhood nickname, and what was the meaning behind it? You can also discuss the nicknames of other family members, both past and present.

I am not really sure why I was called by my middle name Michael or Mike, but growing up I was Mike or Mikee. There was a commercial on TV where they fed some cereal to a young child and they all said Mikee likes it. Also when I was growing up the Mickey Mouse Club was on TV and at the beginning they sang M I C K E Y M O U S E so sometimes I was also called Mickee. The other nickname I had was "Sam", and I never knew why my grandfather called me SAM, but in his family most people used their middle name, so maybe that is where I got my Mike nickname.

Notice my Blog is Mikkel's Hus which is Danish for Michael's House. My other grandfather was Anton Mikkel Hansen or A.M. for his nickname. His father was Hans Mikkelsen son of Mikkel Madsen, so my Michael is from a long line of Michael's.

Saturday Night Fun Filing Documents

Hello there, genea-collectors - it's SATURDAY NIGHT, time for more GENEALOGY FUN.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Think about this: Is all of your genealogical material, which you've gathered over the years, well organized? Do you have papers, certificates, photographs and other ephemera squirreled away somewhere in your genealogy cave center? Do you have forgotten digital files, including documents, photographs and notes hiding in your computer file folders? It's Saturday night, do you know where ALL of your family history information is?

2) Give yourself a grade (from A to F) on how well you've done with your filing of tangible and digital genealogical assets (two grades, one for each). Brag about your organizational prowess if you deserve it - you can be a good example to the rest of us. Bemoan your situation if your files are like mine.

3) Look through your tangible or digital genea-assets and find something you've "lost," forgotten or overlooked that might add to your knowledge about one or more families. Tell us what you found, how will it help you, and will you commit to analyze it, source it, and use it?



Well I would give myself an F for my filing of documents I have collected over the years, most all are still in a pile on my sofa, but others are scattered on my desk or table also. I think I have entered all in my genealogical program here on my computer, so that is good anyway.
Photos I have bunches of slides I need to scan and save digitally.

Since I have a lot of early New England ancestors I always check Randy's Surname Saturday, and I was pretty sure I had a Hubbard which I forgot about, but once again it does not look like we are connected. My Hubbard is Anna Hubbard b. about 1614 and she married William Barstow May 8, 1638 in Dedham, Massachusetts, he was born about 1612 in England

52 Weeks to Personal Genealogy Grandparents Houses

Week #31 – Grandparents’ House

Week 31: Grandparents’ House. Describe your grandparents’ house. Was it big or small? How long did they live there? If you do not know this information, feel free to describe the house of another family member you remember from your childhood.
This first picture is my Hansen grandparents along with my two uncles Ralph & Leigh, and aunt Frances. My grandparents moved to Columbus Montana in 1910 and ran the creamery there for a few years. Anton then sold the creamery and bought the grain elevator. He also moved to this farm north of Columbus. Leigh was born in 1913 so I guess this picture was taken about 1918. I never saw inside this house, my dad did drive there a couple of times, and it looked really run down when I saw it.

This second picture is my Kelly grandparents house with my grandmother Cleo Kelly on the walk in front of her house. Charles and Cleo Kelly bought this house in 1924 and lived there all the rest of their lives. I inherited it in 1980 so I know a lot about this house. It is pretty small just over 600 square feet, but has a large living room and open to the dining room. The bedrooms are tiny especially the one on the ground floor. My mom said a real treat was watching thunder storms from the front porch. Across the street when she was young was an electric substation, and nearly every thunderstorm the lightning would hit the substation and the substation would light up like the Fourth of July fireworks.